Immediate Family

About Ve

Jakob Grimm reconstructed the original genealogy of the Norse gods as: Tvisco (identical with Búri, who was produced from stone), father of Maunus (Borr), father of Ingvio (Odin), father of Nerthus (Njord), father of Fravio (Freyr) and Frauja (Freyja). Odin's brother Vili would have been Istro, and Vé would have been Irmin. (￼Teutonic Mythology￼, 348-49).

￼Irmin￼

Irmin was the legendary ancestor of the Irminones or Hermiones, a Germanic proto-tribe that lived in the interior in the Elbe region in the time of Tacitus (98 CE). Pliny said the Irminones included the Suebi, Hermunduri, Chatti, and Cherusci. (￼Natural History￼, 4.100). They later differentiated into the Alemanni, Hermunduri, Marcomanni, Quadi and Suebi.

Jormun, the Viking-age Norse form of the name Irmin, is found in the ￼Poetic Edda￼ as a by-name for Odin.

Nennius called him Armenon, and said his sons were Gothus, Valagothus (or Balagothus), Cibidus, Burgundus, and Longobardus, the ancestors of the Goths (including the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Crimean Goths), Valagoths (or Balagoths), Cibidi, Burgundians and Langobards (Lombards).

￼Vé￼

Vé (*Wihaz) is named in the surviving literature as a brother of Odin. He was apparently identical with Hœnir, named as Odin's brother in another version of the same story.

Some sources suggest Vé was the ancestor of the Vanir, a group of Norse gods who were defeated by the Aesir and who exchanged hostages with them.

In Norse mythology, Vili and Vé are the brothers of Odin, sons of Bestla daughter of Bölþorn and Borr son of Búri.

Odin and his brothers formed Midgard from the sea.

With these brothers, Odin cast down the frost giant Ymir and made Earth from Ymir's body.

Vili

by Micha F. Lindemans

In Scandinavian myth, one of the primordial gods, brother of Odin and Ve. The three of them were responsible for the creation of the cosmos, as well as the first humans.

In Norse mythology, Vili and Vé are the brothers of Odin, sons of Bestla daughter of Bölþorn and Borr son of Búri

Old Norse vili means "will". Old Norse vé means "sanctuary"

Creation

The three brothers are the first generation of the Æsir who slay Ymir ending the primeval rule of the race of giants (corresponding to the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades defeating the Titans in Greek mythology). The first human couple, Ask and Embla, Odin gave soul and life, Vili wit (intelligence) and sense of touch, Ve countenance (colour?), speech, hearing and sight. The names given to Odin's brothers in the Völuspá are Hœnir and Lóðurr.

Rydberg (1886) speculates that as Odin is the progenitor of the Æsir, Vili and Vé would be the progenitors of the clans of the Vanir and Álfar, respectively. He positively identifies Vili and Vé with Lóðurr and Hœnir, further identifying Lóðurr (Saxo's Lotherus) with Mundilfori.

Triad

Note that in Proto-Norse, the three brothers were alliterating, *Wódin, Wili, Wé (Proto-Germanic *Wōdinaz, Wiljon, Wǣhaz), so that the they can be taken as forming a triad of *wódz, wiljon, wǣhaz, approximately "inspiration (transcendent, mantic or prophetic knowledge), cognition (will, desire, internal thought that leads to action) and numen (spiritual power residing in the external world, in sacred objects)".

Compare to this the alliteration in a verse found in the Exeter Book, Wôden worhte weos "Woden wrought the sanctuaries" – where compared to the "triad" above, just middle will etymon has been replaced by the work etymon. The name of such sanctuaries to Woden Wôdenes weohas (Saxon Wôdanes wih, Norse Oðins ve) survives in toponymy as Odinsvi, Wodeneswegs.

While Vili and Vé are of little prominence in Norse mythology as attested, their brother Oðinn has a more splendid career as the chief of the Norse pantheon. Oðinn however remains member of a triad, at the head of the three mightiest gods, Oðinn, Thôr, Freyr. Oðinn is also styled Thridi "the third", in which case he appears by the side of Hâr and Iafnhâr (the "high" and the "even-high" or co-equal), as the "Third High". At other times, he is Tveggi "the second". In relation to the Oðinn-Vili-Vé triad, Grimm (ch. 7) compares Old High German willa, which not only expressed voluntas, but also votum, impetus, spiritus, and the personification of Will, Wela in Old English sources. Keyser (1847) interprets the triad as "Spirit, Will and Holiness", postulating a kind of Germanic Trinity in Vili and Vé to be "blended together again in the all-embracing World-spirit – in Odin. [...] he alone is Al-father, from whom all the other superior, world-directing beings, the Æsir, are descended."

According to Loki, in Lokasenna, Vili and Vé had an affair with Odin's wife, Frigg. This is taken by Grimm as reflecting the fundamental identity of the three brothers, so that Frigg might be considered the wife of either. According to this story Oðinn was abroad for a long time and in his absence his brothers acted for him. It is worthy of note, that Saxo also makes Oðin travel to foreign lands and Mithothin fill his place, and therefore Mithothin's position throws light on that of Vili and Ve. But Saxo, represents Oðin as once more an exile, and puts Oller in his place. The distant journeys of the god are implied in the Norse by-names Gângrâðr, Gângleri, Vegtamr, and Viðförull. It is not to be overlooked, that even Paulus Diaconus (1, 9) knows of Wodan's residence in Greece while Saxo removes him to Byzantium, and Snorri to Tyrkland.